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A residential design firm bringing homeowners and contractors together for efficient, effective communication. |
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You’ve got a great idea for your kitchen, or the bathroom needs remodeling, right? Many people look to hire a remodeler. You don’t want a remodeler that creates headaches for you.
When interviewing a remodeler remember this:
…continue reading When interviewing a remodeler »
Remodeling headaches come in many forms: over-budget, taking too long, loss of control, and generally frustration and confusion. 
While a cold headwrap may help the pain, personal experience tells me that it won’t help the remodeling project. So, we look at some ways to help those headaches.
The FamilyEducation.com website, gives an excerpt on How to Spot an “Underground” Contractor, from The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Common Household Disasters © 2005 by Paul Hayman and Sonia Weiss. Their article gives us the first point in how to reduce headaches.
…continue reading 5 Tips to Reduce Remodeling Headaches »
Our design/build team recently completed an attic renovation project design. Working with Joe Dellanno (www.mydesignbuildproject.com) and Gerry Dunleavy (www.dunleavyconstruction.com), we were able to give our clients their needs.
Our clients wanted to expand their attic space to include a home office, guest bedroom, a bedroom for their daughter, and a larger bathroom. Considering that the finish level in the attic wasn’t up to the rest of the home, they wanted to also match the details in the rest of the house.
…continue reading Can I get some light in here? »
A recent article about college graduates that have tens of thousands of dollars in student loans stimulated some comparisons and thought regarding professional services. The article, by default, posed the question of where the blame, or responsibility, lies in these cases.
One such party that could take responsibility is the university. For the sake of this article, the university could be likened to a service company – they provide the students with the service of education.
…continue reading The advantages of direct cost service »
With each and every project we start and complete, each one reminds us in its own unique way that communication is vital to the success of every project. Makes sense since each project requires a relationship, and quite often a network of relationships in order to complete it. So, adding to and honing communication is important since our clients want to see more with each year that passes. Thus, we add to our communication skills! If picture is worth a thousand words, how many words equals a video?
…continue reading Adding to communication »
We know that there were two major wars in history, World War I and World War II. There was the First Battle of Bull Run, and the Second Battle of Bull Run in the American Civil War. However, when the first war ended, people didn’t call it World War I since they didn’t know that there would be a second war. Yesterday, I posted the article Remodeling:How to find a professional not realizing that there would be a “part 2″ to come.
Today, I found a list of items that someone else posted to try and help people find a professional. I’d like to address this list and hopefully give some perspective.
…continue reading Selecting a professional, part 2 »
In a recent article on Customer Service in the remodeling world, it was found that customer service seems to be a lost art. We can all bemoan those problems, or we can do something about it.
A search on Facebook or Twitter can yield conflicting reports. Many companies are creating their “Facebook fan club” or tweeting about the latest product or project. Yet recently, some friends on Facebook replied to a question about their first thoughts on “remodeling”. The responses ranged from “expensive” to “dirty” and “tiring”.
So, if you want to update your home, and you aren’t planning to do it yourself (or maybe you will hire part of it to be done), how does one select a contractor? Selecting based on price will almost always lead you in the wrong direction! But how else can we base our decision?
…continue reading Remodeling:How to find a professional »
Homeowners have been scared of remodeling – especially lately – for many reasons, and unfortunately many good reasons! Many of those reasons can be wrapped up into the question posed in this article: Where did Customer Service go?
The stories are sadly both atrocious and frequent. There is the neighbor who had the case of the missing contractor. A friend has the Family Circus visit her dining room, complete with
…continue reading Remodeling: Where did Customer Service go? »
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been reading a LOT about Building Information Modeling (BIM) lately. Even Warren Buffet is talking about BIM! It used to be that BIM was used strictly for larger corporations who were building medium to large manufacturing plants or offices. But now, people are talking about BIM for homes – yours and mine! Does that seem odd to you? Corporations are using this technology to save them money on their large projects. If this technology could be used for your betterment, would that be relevant?
…continue reading BIM for my home? »